WTBB 13 - Clan LOCA 02 - Clan Stuff

So as we continue to tank and play, the Clan has gotten a lot bigger - and a lot more organised. We have around fifty members now, so we -had- to get more organised. I made a forum for the Clan, so anything organisational can be posted on there. After all, the chat usually overflows with very random and not important stuff, and this way all the important data can be found in one place.

We've also put a set of requirements in place to keep any possible noobs out, and for each new member we have a poll and everything so people have a say in who enters and who not. We also decided not to look at someone's overall data, but only at the data of tiers VII and higher, as that truly shows the heart of the player. This does make for quite a lot of work, and I sometimes wonder what the heck I've gotten myself into.

I made a large excel-file that holds a sheet for each and every one of us, with some nifty formulas, to help me calculate all the tiers VII and higher data I need to see if any potential newbie to the Clan meets them. It helps that we're an invite-only Clan, as it takes a bit per member to calculate the stuff. Time I could spend tanking instead >.> So far, I've only had to turn four people down. One of which got his data up and is in now, and another who's still working hard to get in.

But from what I've heard, Zeus has had to turn a lot of noobs down. Several of the guys he brought in refer to him as the Clan's leader. And that irks me a little, to be honest. Turtle, Panda and I first started inviting other people in. I'm the one that first started calling it a Clan and thought of the Clan's name. And I'm the one doing all the work and arranging and organising everything. So why does he get all the credit?

But in the end, it's mostly my own low self-esteem and the pride I do have that get hurt over it. If they want him to be the leader, then why not? He might behave like someone who has lost his marbles more often than not, but he is a great player and a great guy, too. He knows almost everyone in the Clan, invited the most people. He's one of those guys who can just talk to anyone about anything. I've never been able to do that. So like as not, he'll be a much better leader than I could ever be. So I'll just be the organiser slash cheerleader slash mother hen that I've been so far.

Since a week, we've started two new things in the Clan. One of which is a contest. This is mostly just for fun, but also to get all the members we have onto the forum. Basically it means we have to platoon with another member of LOCA that's also on the forum, and the damage we do as a platoon counts as our score. The highest score wins either wotb-gold, an iTunes gift card or chocolate. Clan activity has increased, and the chat has turned even more random and I've gotten to know some new people, too, so it's definitely worth the cost =)

But the most fun new development in the Clan is skype. We recently started to skype while tanking. Now, this could be incredibly handy strategically and all, but it has turned out to be a lot more chaotic than practical. It has me in stitches each and every time though. Especially when Mouse says his version of the word Conqueror (one of the British tanks). In his very French accent, it becomes Konkerror. So most of the people that have skyped with us now pronounce it like that too.

I've gotten to know the guys I tank with even better now. As such, I now know that Raccoon hardly ever shuts up - which can make it hard to hear the people you're platooning with, but overall, his commentary on the battles he drives is very entertaining. He describes everything, with very diverse and rude words. He's incredibly creative that way. Probably needs to learn some manners, though ;)

The thing that I enjoy the most though, are the accents. With nationalities from all over the place, there's a variety of them, and they're all just adorable. There's the sound of the original country in their voice, but also expressions that aren't English but are probably literally translated into English. I've always been audio-orientated, so I recognize them by their voices now most of the time, instead of having to look who's saying what. It's gotten to the point where, when they type things in the clan-chat, I can just hear their voices saying it in my head.

It's also made playing more fun on its own. We count down and all press battle at once, whether we are platooning or no. It heightens the chances of us meeting each other in battle. So far, the most we've gotten is eight LOCA-members in one match. Considering the fact that there are only fourteen players in a match, that's quite a lot. And of course, you start targeting each other first. This can go either really well or really bad. With all the noobs around, it usually means it goes well to target the other members first, but if the other team has some non-noobs around, you could well end up getting flanked and killed because of the tunnel vision you get when focussing on just your enemy clan-members.

And of course, when you meet other clan-members, you can't exactly talk about where you'll go on skype, rendering the whole possible tactical advantage mute. But it has me in stitches most of the time, because it's just so random. Not to mention all the cussing that goes on. At noobs, at missed shots, bounces, at dying. At other clan members for killing them. There's good advice in there too, but I'll write about that in the next installment of this blog.

The thing I find funniest is that despite the fact that people now actually have heard me go 'Eep', 'shitshitshit' and 'oh crap' and all the variations of it, they still play with me. I'm not sure why that does not put them off. But I turn out not to be the only one that does that kind of thing. And I laugh at their exclaiming things just as much as they laugh about mine.